altering a poem by denise levertov

she would be the same age as my father
had she not died in 1997

she was perhaps the greatest woman poet
of her age

for purposes of my own deciding
i will take this poem
out of the 6 questions
6 answers format
and
answer each question
with the answer
poetically given

thus there will be an
immediate cohesiveness
which obviously existed
in the mind of the poet
but i will establish here
as is my wont

WHAT WERE THEY LIKE?

1) Did the people of Viet Nam
use lanterns of stone?

....Sir, their light hearts turned to stone.
It is not remembered whether in gardens
stone lanterns illumined pleasant ways.

2) Did they hold ceremonies
to reverence the opening of buds?

....Perhaps they gathered once to delight in blossom,
but after the children were killed
there were no more buds.

3) Were they inclined to quiet laughter?

....Sir, laughter is bitter to the burned mouth.

4) Did they use bone and ivory,
jade and silver, for ornament?

....A dream ago perhaps. Ornament is for joy.
All the bones were charred.

5) Had they an epic poem?

....It is not remembered. Remember,
most were peasants; their life
was in rice and bamboo.
When peaceful clouds were reflected in the paddies,
and the water buffalo stepped surely along the terraces,
maybe fathers told their sons old tales.
When bombs smashed those mirrors
there was time only to scream.

6) Did they distinguish between speech and singing?

...There is an echo yet
of their speech which was like a song.
It was reported their singing resembled
the flight of moths in moonlight.
Who can say? It is silent now.

Ms Levertov used the form
of a court briefing
or a military manual of some sort
which suggests a straightforward
businesslike approach to all matters
6 questions asked
6 questions answered

i on the other hand wish to use the call and response
approach here because i hear a conversation of some sort

so while acknowledging ms levertovs' published intent
i have merged the two parts of the poem
in order to lend the responses some immediacy
to the questions

that is all